interview with the president, there are several opportunitied to watch a rebroadcast on msnbc later today at 2:00 p.m., 4:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern, and again tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m. for highlights from the interview, be sure to follow me on twitter, @davidgregory, my handle. that's all for today. we'll be back next week. until then, have a happy new year. if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

it is 8:00 on east coast. a lot to tell you about the fiscal cliff. first, breaking news. we just got this from the associated press. secretary of state hillary clinton has been admitted to the hospital with a blood clot. following that concussion, you'll remember, she suffered a concussion after becoming severely dehydrated and she fell earlier this month. we should say, nbc news has not confirmed this report. let's go to nbc's kristin welker, who is at the white house. my understanding was, kristin, she had been expected to go back to work soon. >> reporter: that was our understanding. secretary of state, officials with the department, essentially saying that she was getting better, they expected her to return to work soon. of course, we learned about the fact that she was not feeling well, that she was ill, she had the flu a couple of weeks ago, and then a couple days after that, we learned that she became dehydrated, fell, suffered a concussion, as you said. at that point in time, officials

with her department said she was at home, he was resting, she was getting medical care, she was being monitored by doctors. as you'll recall, chris, she wasn't able to testify on the incident in benghazi as she was initially scheduled to. she also, because of her health, wasn't able to attend the president's announcement of her replacement, senator john kerry. she has been out of the picture for quite some time. after the kerry announcement she released a statement, praising the choice, john kerry was the right decision. but still she has been in a state of recovery for quite some time. >> let me interrupt you for a second. we did get a statement now from phillip rains at state department, kristin. i want to read it for folks so that they know the absolute latest. sorry for the intrusion on your sunday night, but we want to update you on the secretary's health. following statement is on the record. in the course of a follow-up exam today, secretary clinton's

doctors discovered a blood clot formed stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago. she's being treated with anti-coagulants she's at new york presbyterian hospital to monitor the medication over the next 48 hours. her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion. they will determine if any further action is required. so we just got that from our producer at the state department and phillip rains at state confirming what we said a few moments ago, that the secretary of state, who we know had been working from home or at least reportedly working from home after she became severely dehydrated, fell and suffered a concussion. now is being treated for a blood clot at new york presbyterian hospital. would you expect something from the white house tonight, kristin? >> reporter: well, we certainly have put out e-mails to the white house. i haven't heard anything back yet. they are likely still processing this information as are we.

we are trying to get reaction from the white house. that has not come out yet. but i would expect, at some point, we will hear from them on this point. obviously, they have been concerned about the secretary's health and eager for her to come back to work. so i would not be surprised if we got a statement this evening or at some point tomorrow on this matter. chris? >> thank you. i know you'll stand by because we have a lot more to talk about. secretary of state hillary clinton, we will keep you posted as we get more information. she's the most-traveled secretary of state in history and she had often spoken about retiring after the end of the first term for president obama saying that she frankly just needed some rest. now unfortunately hospitalized for this blood clot. we will, as i said, keep you posted as we get more information. meantime, the fiscal cliff stand-off in washington continues. at this late hour the senate and house of representatives both went into recess, still no deal. republican senate leader mitch

mcconnell reached out to vice president joe biden to help reach an agreement. two men who have served as their party's closers, so to speak, on tough deals before. senate majority leader harry reid says he plans to have a plan up for a vote tomorrow morning. although there are serious differences on both sides. >> we're not going to have any social security cuts at this stage, it just doesn't seem appropriate. i still hold out hope we can get something done but i'm not overly optimistic but i am cautiously optimistic. >> republicans pushed back on claims by democrats that the social security benefit measurement, which is known as the chained cpi and basically would reduce the amount of money that senior citizens get under social security, was part of the republican plan. in any case, that is off the table. senator john mccain posted this on twitter, most of us agree the chained cpi is off the table in

these negotiations. president obama continued to put public pressure on republicans during his appearance on "meet the press" today. >> it is very important for republicans in congress to be willing to say, we understand we're not going to get 100%, we're willing to compromise in a serious way. >> joined by congressman barney frank of massachusetts. it is good to see you, congressman. good evening. >> thank you. >> you're coming -- the senate's coming back at 11:00 tomorrow morning. what are chances there will be something to vote on, do you think? >> i think there are very good chances there will be something to vote on. the question is whether it will be a bipartisan agreement or simply the senate democrats putting a vote and hoping republicans will vote for it. trying to get an agreement is difficult because that gives right wing of the republican party this big veto. a number of republican senators, not just those generally considered to be moderate, have

said that they agree that it is important now to keep taxes from going up on most people and accept the reality that they will go up by the top 1 pshgs 2%, 250,000 in income and above. and it does look, to me, that there are enough votes if senator reid puts that on the floor for it to break the 60. but the republican probably going to filibuster it. >> even at 250,000, not 400 or 500, other numbers that have been floated? >> those are the compromise numbers. that's an effort by the president and senator reid to bring the republicans along. but senator reid said his preference is 250,000, which i agree with, by the way. what we're talking about is 4.6% increase in taxes. that means if you're making 250,000 ayear for every additional 1,000 you'll pay $46. the notion of paying $46 out of 1,000 for wealthy people has any

negative affect on anybody, i confirmed this talking to one of wealthiest men of boston, i asked if we were to raise taxes by that amount on him would he know it if his accountant didn't make a point of telling him. he said of course not. but in any case the 400 is an effort to have a compromise. and then maybe you bring in some other elements. but -- >> let me ask you about other things being talked about here. politico describes talks as hanging by a thread and say now that this change, potentially the social security taken off the table by republicans, the problem is over sort of turning off the sequester, those tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts. >> yes. >> democrats, we are told, tell me if i'm right, they want to use some revenue from increased taxes to postpone those cuts. and republicans object to that. is that your understanding where things stand? >> no, not -- partially true. here's the big problem. the position of most republicans

that i have heard articulated is that the sequester should be changed. the sequester in law would cut efally from defense and nondefense in the discretionary part of the budget. the republicans are trying to say no more cuts in the military spending. in fact, they want increases which would increase cuts elsewhere and that's something the democratic caucus is firmly against. i think the american people are against. so, the difference is over the sequester are not whether or not you put it off, as i understand it, but whether or not you alter it in a way that protects bases in germany and unneeded nuclear weapons and prolongation of the war in afghanistan, and instead make more cuts elsewhere. >> you know what the republicans, particularly conservative republicans, are arguing, and a couple of them rand paul, pat toomey, put out statements after these negotiations shut down tonight and basically said, look, here's what democrats want.

democrats want essentially to take more money from the wealthy, from the top few percent, to pay for more government spending that doesn't help us with the deficit. and you hear members of congress, your republican colleagues who say, in my district, they don't want more spending. and that's how they see this money being spent. >> two things i would say. first of all, that is not the democratic position. no one that i know of is arguing that all of the increased revenue should go for increased spending nap simply isn't the case. by the way not having the sequester doesn't mean increased spending. it mean not having spending cuts. i voted against the idea of a sequester. i think it's not right way to do it. what the republicans want to do is spend more on defense. let me deal with this notion that republicans for cutting spending. you heard mitt romney criticize president obama because he's not spending enough on ships, which we don't need, and not staying long enough in the war zones. the republicans' view of spending is very particular one.

secondly, as far as the american people are concerned, people in their districts, gee, if they represent districts in new jersey and new york they want more spending. you know, people -- if you ask them they want government pending they say no. do you want to cut medicare? no, not that. how about firefighters? people boast of cutting government. when was the last time you heard them cut fire department or cut down on snow removal? in fact the republicans tend to be opposed to spending in general. when it comes to particular spending, remember paul ryan acknowledging he was seeking to get the stimulus money that he was denouncing. but in any case, it's not the democratic position we should put all of the increased revenue into spending. by the way, i believe much of government spending is very important. there are things that we need for the quality of our life. good transportation. public safety. decent education. you can't do those only through the private sector. >> let me ask you quickly, i'd like to use your perspective in

30-plus years you've been in congress, and this is the least productive congress ever. i'm sure i don't need to tell you the numbers but it's 219 bills passed, some of them pretty much inconsequential. i think the previous low number of bills passed was 333. how do you think we got to this point? how did we get to the edge of the fiscal cliff and the least productive congress in history? >> the public is implicated in this. 2008 the public elected president obama, democratic house, democratic senate. 2010, a large number of people in the public changed their minds they got angry at us over health care, which was misunderstood, angry at us because we inherited a section that we weren't able to defeat because of their obstruction. in 010 -- in most democracies that would be it. we have a constitution under which it's called the staggered powers, checks and balances, the last three elections are there. the problem is in 2008 you had one group of people elected, in

2010, another. there wasn't simply the people in 2010 were conservative. very substantial number of the people elected as republicans in 2010 do not believe in governance. they do not understand there are things we need for the quality of life we have to come together. this isn't bob dole. this isn't howard baker. this isn't ronald reagan. these are people that are quite extreme. what's happened is that many republican whose believe in compromise and trying work things out some defeated in primaries and the others are afraid of being defeated in primaries. this deadlock and partisanship, it began in 2007 and 2008 we democrats, who were in control worked with george bush on the t.a.r.p. and a number of things and barack obama got elected and mitch mcconnell announced his number one priority was not to improve the economy or try to improve quality of life but to defeat obama. and so that's the problem. now i do believe in 2012 the public's repudiated that. they re-elected the president, and democrats gained in both

houses. we're seeing a painful process of republicans struggling to accept the fact their extremism was repudiated. >> congressman barney frank, it's good to see you tonight, sir. let's get an update where we are. kelly o'donnell joins us and we welcome back nbc's white house correspondent kristin welker. kelly, we've been reporting about the senate closing down for the night, the house as well. what do we know? >> reporter: the signal that the member have gone home doesn't mean the conversations have ended for the night because it's a small group of people who are in on the details of trying to put a deal together. i'm told the republican leader in the senate mitch mcconnell continued to work phones with vice president joe biden and that in effect biden has stepped in the place of harry reid, the top democrat in the senate. at least for now. reid and mcconnell had been trying to negotiate a deal over the weekend. they hit a road block. and because mcconnell has worked with biden over many years, when he was in the senate, he reached

out to the vice president and said, perhaps joe biden could help jump start things. that's where we are now. there was a lot of fatigue and weariness as the day went on the without a package for members to consider. there was a lot of back and forth, as you know, about different elements of a potential deal and what was angering one side or another. what we expected now is, barring some late night breakthrough which seems unlikely, we would hear from the senate tomorrow, late morning, get a sense where they are, if they're any further along, and then if there is a package, it would be revealed to each side, meaning the house and the senate, let members take a look at it, and gauge if they're ready to go and vote on it. it is the final day of the year tomorrow. and so the time could not be any shorter. and that's putting pressure on everyone involved. we just don't have a sense if there is optimism, but at least we're told they are still talking. chris? >> obviously, vice president biden has not been involved in these negotiations up until now. do we know why the white house

decided this was the time? was there a sense that these negotiations weren't going anywhere? do we know the extent of his involvement at this point? >> reporter: well, i think he's been very involved, certainly, today and throughout the afternoon, and this evening. and i think part of it is because vice president biden has this connection to congress, having served as a congressman for a number of years. he has good relationship with a number of these people. and this was in essence an attempt to move these negotiations which stalled this afternoon forward. so it is a very late night here at the white house, as well. the president, vice president still here, one of the top negotiators, rob neighbors here with a number of senior administration officials who are working the phones, talking to staffers on the hill, trying to get some movement in this process. now, president obama, taking real will a tough line on that issue of taxes, it's the big sticking point, has been all along and past negotiations, of course president obama has been

criticized by democrats who say that he's given in too quickly on the issue of taxes. of course he campaigned on the issue of raising taxes on wealthier americans. so this time he's not backing down. so these negotiations have really been centered, to some extent, on that issue of taxes. the president really using his bully pulpit to try to pressure congress, congressional republicans, making a number of public appearances, include, of course, during that exclusive interview on "meet the press" today when he said that republicans are to blame for this fiscal cliff stalemate. chris? >> kristin welker, thanks to you and thanks to nbc's kelly o'donnell on the hill as well. more ahead this hour as we continue to cover the ongoing negotiations on the hill. why a small deal now would set up a big fight later. more on secretary of state hillary clinton who has been hospitalize tonight with a blood clot. msnbc's live coverage continues after this.

time is running out for congress to reach a deal to avert the fiscal cliff crisis. at this point, the approaching deadline can be measured in hours, and expectations are being scaled down accordingly. >> i suggested to them, if they can't do a comprehensive package of smart deficit reduction, let's, at minimum, make sure people's taxes don't go up. >> the president appearing on "meet the press" this morning, pushing a narrow last-minute deal that would extend the bush tax cuts for the middle class but leave a hoet of other issues unresolved. if congress does reach a small deal on taxes before the fiscal cliff deadlines up, their next fight over the dead ceiling will be queued up and ready to go. whether or not we go over the fiscal cliff tomorrow night, a political stand-off over the debt ceiling is imminent. joining us sort through all of

this current and future fiscal crises is ezra klein. at "the washington post" as well as columnist for bloomberg view. thanks for joining us. you addressed the issue of what happens next, i saw you on rachel's show friday. your theory are it's key to how the fiscal cliff plays out. explain. >> there's a significant difference of opinion in the political ramification of what happens if we go over and it comes down debt ceiling. if we go over the fiscal cliff they have all of the leverage because we'll go into the debt ceiling and it will be just like 2011 again. they'll say we're not going to raise the debt ceiling unless you cut entitlements, barack obama will say no and terrified of consequences of national default he'll say yes. so they'll get all of the entitlement cuts with no tax increases on the table. democrats disagree.

they will not, under any circumstance, no matter what republicans do, negotiate over the debt ceiling again. they'll break the habit now. if we go to the debt ceiling they'll say we're not talking about this, if you want to have a deal on entitlements, that will have to be matched one to one with tax increases, again, with tax reform. if they do that say democrats get $600 billion in tax increases off of the deal we'll have in the next couple of days, the small deal, reid's or mcconnell/reid deal they go to another entitlement cut tax reform negotiation they could end up with over a trillion dollar in taxes. republicans just think if they go over they won't have to worry about tax increases again and debt ceil willing give them all of the power in a month and a half. >> this is -- i mean none of us knows what's going to happen over the next 28 hours or so. but what's your sense of it? at least a narrow deal? >> i think there will be within the next week a deal on the

middle class tax cuts, on unemployment insurance and medicare sgr, the automatic cut to payments to medicare doctors. beyond that i don't see very much happening. i think the sequester's a reach. i don't think there will be any resolution of debt ceiling or any stimulus. what we're doing here, we are not going to offset the fiscal cliff, just doing the bush tax cuts. we'll only take away about 11%, 12% of total economic impact of the so-called fiscal cliff, all of the policies brought together because you'll be letting the payroll tax expire, the refundable tax cuts expire, and the sequester will be doing and we won't be doing much deficit reduction. we'll be increasing the deficit. it is just, i think, hard to step back and take in the totality of congressional failure around this issue. >> well, let's talk about what exactly is likely to happen or is the threat of what will happen. talk about the pentagon. talk about federal workers.

talk about obviously the unemploy unemployed whose benefits are going away. >> absolutely. the biggest -- the most dangerous thing, the fiscal cliff is the unemployment insurance. if we go over for a month we can sort of trick everything else. we can -- the irs can do some tricks to make it so you don't feel tax increases quickly. we can do tricks to make it so we don't lay off people at pentagon, we can furlough them. there's no trick with unemployment insurance. if we go over the cliff and don't do anything by unemployment insurance, 2 million people, hardest hit by the recession, will lose their unemployment insurance. that's number one. we're going to have the payroll tax cut expire, that's probably going to happen if we do reach a deal, that's one of the most important pieces of stimulative policy. the same said for refundable tax credits, helps poor folks. the same with the child tax credit. these have been really important for the working poor. you're going to see very, very big cuts to the government over time. we could paper over those for a

while but not long. that will come through the sequester primarily. big lay-offs among the civil service. we will see two things. one is that if we don't get the fiscal cliff fixed rapidly we will go into another recession. the second if we don't get it fixed rapidly and then we have the debt ceiling collision that i've outlined, we'll see a financial market chaos. if those two things come together, it's going to be a terrifying event for markets, as well it should be. one thing if we get a fix quickly. people don't understand how much damage we're doing to the economy if this goes on for a month and a half. >> thank you. the moment of truth for republicans. are they willing to put country ahead of party and make a deal? and again, other big story we're following tonight, secretary of state hillary clinton admitted to new york presbyterian hospital. she has a blood clot following the concussion she suffered this month. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again.

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special coverage of the fiscal cliff negotiations. but we wanted to tell you, once again, secretary of state hillary clinton has been hospitalized. that being confirmed this hour by phillipe rhines at the state department. in the course of a follow-up exam today, secretary clinton's doctors discovered a blood clot formed stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago. she's being treated with anti-coagulants at new york presbyterian hospital so they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours. her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues that may be associated with the concussion and then determine if further action is required. you may remember that she had a severe stomach virus and became severely dehydrated, and then we learned, in the middle of december, that after she canceled an overseas trip, that

she had fainted and because of that severe dehydration, and suffered that concussion, she also had to cancel her testimony on benghazi. we have been told that she was expected to go back to work soon and she had been working from her home, continuing to do stuff from there. but now we obviously have learned that she has developed this blood clot. but it was a normal routine checkup on her condition. they discovered it. so they are treating it. we'll keep you posted as we get more information on the condition of secretary of state hillary clinton. in the meantime, fiscal cliff negotiations continue. but it's becoming more evident by the hour the enormous hurdles that have to be overcome, particularly by republican leaders, like senator mitch mcconnell and speaker john boehner who, so far, have shown little interest in standing up to the strident elements of their party. michael, good evening. >> good evening. >> you heard about this recently about this moment of truth for

republicans. what do you see as the dynamic that's going on right now? >> well, let's put it like this. after the election, and barack obama won re-election pretty handily, as it turned out, after the republicans threw everything they had at him, after mcconnell said his top priority, as barney frank mentioned a few moments ago was to make barack obama a one-term president, wasn't to fix the economy, it was to make barack obama a one-term president, obama took all of that, he won. there was a sense in washington, among some people, i guess, i would call them sort of naive people, that the republicans might have learned something from that and might come to the table. but i'm afraid that, chris, they've learned precisely the opposite, that they're just going to double down in their opposition and that's what we're seeing so far with the failure to have a resolution to these fiscal cliff negotiations. john boehner -- >> but mitch mcconnell did reach ute to the president.

do you see that as posturing, we're doing our best, or do you think the republicans are serious and feeling pressure about making a deal? >> i don't think they feel that much pressure. i think they feel -- they feel a little bit of pressure but feel more pressure from their base and from the right, and that is especially true in the house among the house caucus. the whole reason for that plan b fiasco, of course, that boehner pulled before christmas, was that his more conservative members wouldn't agree to any tax increase at all, even on incomes above $1 million a year. the pressure they feel is from the right, and believe me, you look down the list of the republicans in the house of representatives and try to look and see what percentage of the vote barack obama got in their districts. which is a good barometer of how much kind of pressure they might feel to moderate. barack obama got 38%, 42% in most of their districts.

they don't care about what democrats in their districts think. they care about whether they're going to get a primary challenge from the right. >> michael tomasky, thank you. when we return, we're going to talk to republican congressman tom cole of oklahoma about his party and why deal with the democrats remains elusive. [ male announcer ] feeling like a shadow of your former self? c'mon, michael! get in the game! [ male announcer ] don't have the hops for hoops with your buddies? lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey!

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quite frankly, we've gotten big deals done with the president before. the budget deal in april of 2011, the debt ceiling deal, the free trade agreements, the student loan, the transportation. but the negotiations have always been hard, tough, contention, for two reasons, two sides fundamentally disagree. second, quite honestly, democratic friends particularly the president never gotten serious about spending cuts. if they get all of the revenue they ask for won't come close to dealing with the fiscal issue. >> well, clearly democratic colleagues have a different view of that. let me play what chris van hollen said a short time ago. >> so far, speaker boehner has been held captive and is imcomplicit in many ways with the tea party wing of the republicans in the house which voted down his own proposal, just about a week ago, because he said, well, we should ask folks making over a million

dollars to pay a little bit more. his caucus said no. what we're saying, chris, let the house, democrats and republicans, vote on the president's proposal, let the democracy work its will. >> should democracy, as he puts it, be able to work its will? >> i would hope so. over time. chris, on a couple of points, first of all he said the caucus rejected the speaker's position. that's not true. the speaker had well over 200 votes out of 240. actually the democrats changed this proposal, the million dollars was their proposal last year. they've walked away from what they proposed. we're in a single democrat that would help provide tax certainty. we're in negotiation. see what the senate does. if they'll finally act, something they failed to do for two years. they've had legislation to deal with the issue since may. and send us something over, amend it how they want, we'll take a look at it, see what we can do. >> you said flat out republicans should pass the middle class tax cuts, get that done, get it over

with. are you going to get it done? if so, how? >> i think we will. look, that's my position all along. i just think it's the smart thing to do when you've got areas that you agree, to get them taken care of out of the way. honestly we're in a stronger position because we've been talking about what the democrats don't want to talk about, reducing spending and dealing with entitlement reform. instead, you know we fought over something that was going to happen anyway. under current law, taxes are going up for every american, that's not acceptable outcome. if we protect 9 %, 99%, to me we ought to do it quickly and move on to issues, number one, really matter and, number two, divide us. >> would you vote affirmatively if the dividing line was $250,000? >> i'm not going to deal with hypotheticals. i don't have any problem in protecting 98% of the people i'm privileged to represent. i don't see that as a major sticking point. and i don't see it as a tax increase. taxes are going up under current law. i -- if pif i could stop them

from going up for everyone i would. it takes a democratic senate, a democrat president to cooperate. it makes sense to save the maximum of taxpayers. that's not a tax increase, that's making perm what are temporary tax cuts for the overwhelming majority of americans. >> if there isn't a deal on fiscal cliff or if it's narrow, if it covers the bare minimum and there's a lot of issues still to be worked out, there's been a lot of disagreement about what that means in the short term, just say through january or february. do you think it would be catastrophic? do you think that there -- >> it's not -- >> it's been overstated? >> it's not catastrophic. but i think the failure to reach a larger deal will be something democrats look back and regret. once the revenue issue's taken care of -- and it will be taken care of quickly -- we're on to the real issues where we have leverage and they don't, that's spending and entitlement issues. there's a sequester itself, which we ought to avoid but they

have to avoid to cuts to do that there's continuing resolution, ability of government to spend money, runs out in march and there's the debt ceiling. the american people do want spending cuts. they want reductions in the size of government. so far democrats have been unwilling to entertain. >> i'm sure you just heard what congressman barney frank had to say, and that's the fact that in general, people say, yes, of course, we need to cut spending. if you ask them, do you want to cut your social security bennetts? do you want fewer firefighters, do you want services that you're used to having provided cut, the answer is a resounding no. >> my good friend chairman frank says, the premise of his question is that every single dime the government spends is sack kra sank and every single dime is well directed, that's simply not the case. there's a lot of cutting that could be done. legitimate disagreements in things and sometimes people have to do things they don't want to

do. they also don't want to raise their taxes. you can't have a european welfare state in terms of services and low tax entrepreneurial free enterprise system at the same time. there's trade-offs involved here. i think people are adult enough to make the appropriate choices. >> congressman tom cole. thank you. more ahead including the latest on hillary clinton who has been hospitalized with a blood clot following the concussion she suffered. nbc's bob ba zil will be with us.

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>> continuing to follow breaking news concerning hillary clinton, state department confirming mrs. clinton admitted to a new york hospital earlier after doctors discovered a blood clot during a routine exam. the blood clot developed from a concussion the secretary suffered this month, she fainted two weeks ago due to severe dehydration caused about a

stomach flu. phillipe reines issueed this statement. quote, in the course of a follow-up exam today, secretary clinton's doctors discovered a blood clot had formed stemming from the concussion she sustained several weeks ago. she's being treated with anti-coagulants and is new york presbyterian hospital so they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours. her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion. they will determine if any further action is required. joining me now to talk about the secretary's condition, nbc chief medical correspondent, bob bazell. always good to see you. you rushed in here. but do we have any sense of how serious this could be? >> no, chris, we don't, because a blood clot after a concussion can be what's called a subdural hematoma and that's serious. this is not to say this is what happened with secretary clinton. but a subdermal hematoma can be life threatening that's what

killed natasha richardson. where she got her blood clot is critical in this. if the blood clot's in her brain, it's dangerous. any other part of the body it's dangerous because it can migrate into her brain and cause a stroke, which is the biggest concern, why they're monitoring her and the second thing it can go into the lungs and cause problems there, if it's moving around through the body. they say they're trying to get rid of it with standard blood thinner medication, cup ma din, we've heard about that, it's standard treatment. but until we know more details we don't know exactly what kind of situation she's in. >> the fact they found it and the fact she's hospitalized, obvious obviously, i guess argue for she's getting the best treatment possible. >> yes. she is being followed and that's very critical. she would had routinely, someone of her statue, someone in the united states would get a cat scan after a concussion to make

sure they don't have a blood clot in the brain and i'm presuming this happened in the case. we would have heard about it if she had. >> other standard treatments for blood clots. >> surgically, in a big hurry, if necessary if it was dangerous, life-threatening situation, that could be done the fact they're treating it with blood thins are indicates it's less serious. >> do you have an idea, her doctors will continue to assess her condition, including other issues associated with her concussion? what other issues would typically be associated with a concussion that doctors look for? >> make sure that someone's cognitively intact, there's nothing wrong with someone's memory, ability to speak, any kind of paralysis. we're not -- we want to be careful here. we're not saying -- >> people at state department had been suggesting she'd be going back to, work she was doing well, recovering well and it was a routine checkup.

>> and found something. because of the potential dangers of a blood clot to anybody, they had to get her into the hospital to monitor, to make sure it doesn't get to be worse but we don't know how serious it is. >> hopefully we'll get an update. bob bazell, thank you for rushing in, lending your expertise to this. when we return, we'll talk to the chair of the democratic national committee, florida congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. [ male announcer ] it's that time of year again.

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we're following two breaking stories. fiscal cliff negotiations still deadlocked, as the deadline is just a little over a day away, and secretary of state hillary clinton has been hospitalized with a blood clot resulting from her concussion earlier this month. joining me now to talk about the fiscal cliff, dnc chair, congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz of florida. good evening. >> good evening. >> used to saying good morning to you. >> i know. >> i know what you are talking about, democrats are saying if

the republicans can't agree within their caucus about what to do we should vote on the president's proposal, which is to stop taxes going up on anybody who makes less than $250,000 a year. do you expect that to happen? >> i really expect republicans and democrats to do what the american people expect us to do, and that is to come together to make sure that we avoid taxes going up on 98% of americans and 97% of small businesses. we all agree, if the house republican leadership would simply allow a vote on the bill that we have here, we know it would pass. and we could really just set that aside, and leave the issues that have become more thorny and challenging for us to hammer out for another day. we really should be doing and had an opportunity to make a grand bargain. short of that make sure taxes don't go up for almost everyone. >> vice president joe biden, brought in by a phone call by mitch mcconnell and the two of them report lid talking. the lights are on in the white

house and a lot of people waiting to see what they can come up with. how optimistic are you, and how narrow could this deal be? >> well, i mean i'm still -- i'm still reasonably optimistic. i think there is the will, as long as sitting at the table, there's a possibility of us pulling a deal together. we've all been told that we need to plan on being here really through new year's and you know we're ready to stay here through the new congress beginning on thursday if need be. as long as we're still here, as long as negotiations and discussions are going on, there's still an opportunity for us to put together a deal. >> is -- >> the bottom line is 98% of americans need to make sure their taxes don't go up. that's in the republicans' court. >> we have been putting up the clock and saying obviously we're going to be going over the fiscal cliff. but for you, what's -- what sort of your cut-off point where you think that this gets to the point where the implications for the economy are extremely serious? >> well, i think we need to

not -- we've got to stop with the artificial deadlines and i mean this is serious. it's been serious for months. we need to come together. president obama has a $4 trillion deal on the table that would be balanced in terms of increasing the tax rates on the wealthiest americans. significant spending cuts and has even proposed more -- several hundred billion in entitlement savings. if we can come together and put together a balanced agreement, then we can avoid this. and move on to focusing on the job creation and getting the economy turned around that we should all be working together towards. >> but whatever happens, would it be fair to say that you've got much bigger fish to fry, so to speak, in the new year? i mean, it's not going to be the grand bargain. there's going to be a lot of talk of entitlements, we were talking to tom cole and he's saying democrats just don't want to do what they need to do about cutting back spending. we've got to stop spending. >> my friend tom cole knows that's simply not true. we have $4 trillion deal that

includes billions of dollars in spending cuts on the table from president obama that democrats have been willing and ready to support. but look at what tom cole also said. look what he said his party's leverage is, either shutting the government down, that's what the cr is, that he mentioned, defense and domestic spending cuts that are dramatic and that both sides agree are too dramatic to threaten, and the debt ceiling which jeopardizes again the full faith and credit of the united states. those three things that the republicans call leverage indicate to me the republicans are willing to bring us to the brink again. that is unacceptable. it's economically impossible for us to even think. we've got to work together. >> can i just ask you quickly, we know about secretary clinton being in the hospital. >> yes. >> do you have any information on her condition? >> i don't. i know hillary clinton is incredibly strong and she's doing the right thing, focusing on her health. so many people who go through a grueling schedule that she puts

herself through don't do that. she's doing the right thing, in the hospital, and i'm sure she'll be back after a speedy recovery. >> thank you. david gregory's interview with president obama on "meet the press." i'm chris jansing. i'll see you back here tomorrow morning. ♪ [ male announcer ] every time you say no to a cigarette, you celebrate a little win. nicoderm cq, the patch with time release smart control technology that acts fast and helps control cravings all day long. ♪ quit one day at a time with nicoderm cq.